Of course, it’s absolutely ridiculous that the Attorney General of a state should have to “listen” to other people to realise what an attack on free speech banning anonymous political comment is. Mr Rann and Mr Atkinson deserve no credit whatsoever for repealing this law – they should never have passed it in the first place. And the Liberal Party in South Australia should never have helped them pass it either.

Draconian, dumb, futile and foolish are a few descriptions that
spring to mind. I’d also say it’s unworkable in terms of it’s stated
purpose, but it could none the less snare innocent parties if a bloody
minded government decided to enforce it to the letter.

I don’t
know any more about this then what is published in The Advertiser
piece, so I don’t know if this law will apply to this blog, and if so
in what ways. However, anyone commenting here can be assured I will
not be seeking their real name or postcode, let alone publishing it.

The interview here (click on the link above to download it or listen to it at Posterous) has me talking about SA’s ban on anonymous political speech at election time on 4ZZZ News in Brisbane. The interview was played on the 10am news bulletin on 4ZZZ-FM on Tuesday February 2nd 2010.

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]]>https://savotes2010uncensored.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/interview-with-4zzznews-re-sa-banning-anonymous-political-speech-at-election-time/feed/2David JackmansonWhat exactly have the SA Government done to screw over political speech?https://savotes2010uncensored.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/what-exactly-have-the-sa-government-done-to-screw-over-political-speech/
https://savotes2010uncensored.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/what-exactly-have-the-sa-government-done-to-screw-over-political-speech/#commentsMon, 01 Feb 2010 15:28:34 +0000http://savotes2010uncensored.wordpress.com/?p=7The new version of the SA Electoral Act says:

S 116 (1) A person must not, during an election period, publish material consisting of, or containing a commentary on, any candidate or political party, or the issues being submitted to electors, in written form, in a journal published in electronic form on the Internet or by radio or television or broadcast on the Internet, unless the material or the programme in which the material is presented contains a statement of the name and address (not being a post office box) of a person who takes responsibility for the publication of the material.

unless

S 2 (c):

(i) the name and address (not being a post office box) of a person who
takes responsibility for the publication of the material is provided to
the publisher of the journal and retained by the publisher for a period
of 6 months after the end of the election period; and

(ii) the journal contains a statement of the name and postcode of the person who takes responsibility for the publication of the material

Get that? If you want to comment on the election during the “election period” (that is, after the writs are issued to call the election), you have to give me your name and address and I have to keep it for six months. What a load of rubbish. This blog will allow free, anonymous comments and will require no personal information at all.

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]]>https://savotes2010uncensored.wordpress.com/2010/02/02/what-exactly-have-the-sa-government-done-to-screw-over-political-speech/feed/4David JackmansonDown with SA’s undemocratic political speech lawshttps://savotes2010uncensored.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/down-with-sas-undemocratic-political-speech-laws/
https://savotes2010uncensored.wordpress.com/2010/02/01/down-with-sas-undemocratic-political-speech-laws/#commentsMon, 01 Feb 2010 14:39:43 +0000http://savotes2010uncensored.wordpress.com/?p=4The South Australian Government has decided to ban all political comment during election time, unless it’s signed with the commenter’s real name and postcode. This is an undemocratic attack on freedom of speech – the right to speak anonymously is very important.

This blog will be reposting news about the SA election, and there will be NO restrictions on commenting. You can post whatever comments you like, you don’t have to use your real name, and you don’t have to leave a postcode.

If you’d like to be a writer for this blog, please email savotes2010uncensored@gmail.com – I suggest you create a fresh email address from gmail or whoever so I won’t know who you are.